1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a point search apparatus and an in-vehicle navigation apparatus, particularly to a point search apparatus and an in-vehicle navigation apparatus for searching destination candidates.
2. Description of the Related Art
Conventionally, in-vehicle navigation apparatuses have performed a search of destination candidates when the user sets a destination of navigation and provided the candidates to the user. In searching the destination candidates, a candidate is identified based on various search conditions such as types and addresses from many objects that exist in map information. Then, a destination of navigation is set by a user selecting a desired destination candidate from the destination candidates provided as the result of searching destination candidates.
Further, in-vehicle navigation apparatuses conventionally have been provided with a periphery search function for searching facilities that exist within a predetermined distance from a predetermined search starting point by using map information. For example, refer to Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2004-177232 publication.
However, it was impossible for the conventional in-vehicle navigation apparatuses to search destination candidates from which the user could surely see a particular visual target that the user desires, such as a restaurant with a view of a port, for example.
Even in the case where the above-described periphery search function is used and a periphery search for destination candidates (a restaurant, for example) is performed by using a particular visual target (a port, for example) as the search starting point, it was impossible to surely see the visual target from a searched destination candidate if an obstacle (a high building, for example) existed between the destination candidate and the visual target.